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the ashiya douman manga update was really fucking good

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do NOT speak to me THE NEW DOUMAN MANGA UPDATE LOOKS LIKE IT MIGHT BE DROPPING LATER TODAY AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

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leaks for the asat pramad and sampo koski 4.0 emanator fight REAL NOT CLICKBAIT

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love makes us monsters (a look at Love Town and Vergilius in Leviathan)

Leviathan, is, essentially, a Vergilius character piece. it is of course his backstory - or, as much as we need to understand of it for the events of Limbus Company, as a lot is still in the shadows - but it clearly holds a lot of thematic weight, aspects of it standing as mirror to Vergilius's own internal struggles. this post isn't about it (maybe a future post!), but as example, Schadenfreude is the final enemy of the story for a Reason - the Gaze in a Box who stands against the Red Gaze, a creature that Vergilius directly mentally connects to himself as both reflection and mockery of his own plights of watching the misery of the City and not being able to do a thing about it.

so! Love Town. one of Library of Ruina's most famous little stories, a horrific tale of two lovers who take an ill-fated train ride and end up twisted beyond recognition, both mentally and physically. why is Love Town - or more specifically, the poor creature that calls itself Tomerry - included in Leviathan as the very thing that destroys the orphanage and children Vergilius loves? it could, of course, be a callback, a little wave of the flag of "Hey, Remember Ruina?" and may have no thought to it other than "this might be something Iori could use in her plans when she escaped from the Library".

but maybe, perhaps, it also holds its own thematic power. why Tomerry, and not some Abnormality, was the one to further send Vergilius down his road of self-hatred, eternal grief, and stagnant "flow". in the events of Love Town, Elena emphasizes that it is Tommy and Merry's bond that allows them, in their new monstrous form, to keep others from harm:

in fact, "love" becomes the hyperfocus of the creature that Tommy and Merry eventually become. not only their love for one another, but that love as a way to protect people, to act as their hero, to become something that can be looked up to and be relied on. in a way, that love they have is selfish, making them the center of everything around them. "Love Town" celebrates them as their savior, and with their eroded minds, "love" is to be used as both shield and sword to keep the world as they want it to be.

Vergilius is a man filled with love. at the same time, by his own admission, it is a word he's not used to. this is because, as seen in his discussion with Carmen, he understands love as devotion to others, but balks completely (and eventually rejects) love being used for himself.

the love Vergilius has is an anomaly in the City. he should be a heartless, cold man who kills without feeling, but he himself laments in the final chapter of Leviathan - "Why does this thing called a heart not work as I wish it to?" his love and caring for others is both strength and weakness, and it in turn makes him extremely human but also monstrous in his own right. he, who has killed hundreds, thousands, who may kill more, who nevertheless still continues to love others regardless. Vergilius is suffering, tormented over it, its a love that has both led him to protect others fiercely but also pull himself away when people need him most because he thinks he deserves the pain and punishment. its a love that has been suggested to lead to vicious ends, because he still holds a cruel dream in his heart to tear it all down if he loses the ones he loves most.

"Love Town" is a distortion of love. it is a love that was sincere yet it was taken, manipulated, turned into a living monster that thought that its love could keep everyone safe because of the bond of the two people it was made out of. love, in the form of Tomerry, took away the ones that Vergilius loved, and in turn also demonstrated a form of love Vergilius couldn't understand. if he gave into Carmen, if he accepted distorted love with all his heart, if he was successfully manipulated like Tommy and Merry were, could he become even as big of a monster as they became?

is he already there? is he on the cliff, teetering over becoming something like them, if he doesn't get lapis and garnet back?

who knows. love can make monsters of us all.

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hoyoverse like if we don't keep giving this toooootally random 4 star man more content we will fucking Die

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(snapcube sonic voice) ha ha ha! ONE!

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for all your sampo encouragement needs

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the first individual we met in belobog.........was sampo koski...............

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one of my favorite things about living ashiya douman was that he definitely seems to have been mild-mannered and polite, an overall well-meaning sort of guy, but also this doesn't change the fact that he was also a giant resentful bitch under the surface and i love him for it

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SIMULATED UNIVERSE SPOILERS

but man. "joyous wind" like Sampo's wind abilities? Aha bowing again??? SAMPO??? SAMPO YOU THERE?????

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out here waiting for more sampo lore tidbits like who else actually plays honkai star rail for anything else.jpg

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presented without comment.jpg

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hey hey hey. hey what's up with this sampo koski in the new event. why does he have the same effect/need to be hit like the Aha doll in simulated universe. hey hey. hey. what the Fuck

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This is a REALLY good post, and I will also add the additional telling fact that Sampo calls Epsilon a "giant vanity fair".

That is, he waves off going/visiting there precisely because it seems to be a place of selfish debauchery. While Sampo is a confident fellow, he's not someone who wants to pull recognition to himself at all. He even says it himself by saying he's merely the "shadowy comic relief", not the protagonist, not the main one in front of the curtain. He is more than happy to play the supporting role, and we see time and time again that a lot of it is even at his own expense. People look down on him, people mistrust him, he has scams fall through (looking at the museum event), and yet, he takes it all in stride and doesn't let it get him down. And the fun fact is, making himself into a seemingly bumbling fool (ha) that gets the short end of the stick more times than not? It's by design.

This may also be why he can't abide by Sparkle's way of Elation either. She's selfish, all the way, uncaring of whether people get hurt because of her hijinks. Sampo, on the other hand, stands to the side and lets his actions sort people where they need to be. It's why I thought that his coat even has a bit of a ringmaster-like look to it, which would make sense even for how he is as a whole - he sets up the show, he announces the acts, he puts up the set pieces, but you don't come to a circus to see him, specifically. And he's happy for it. It's so telling for his philosophy and it makes him one of the most intriguing characters of the whole story.

There's a part of Sampo's character that is easily overlooked. And that part is easily summed up with this one line

"Epsilon? What fun can you get out of a giant vanity fair like that? True happiness always entails the dignity of mankind. Now that's a quote i live by."

I get why more people don't talk about it, we're more focused on other aspects of his character, and that's alright.

However. It's a very important line.

To give a little bit of a "context". Epsilon, from all we've seen, is a star system of "easy pleasures". Entertainment industry, if you will. Many actors, movies, music, etc, comes from there. It's sort of like a hollywood.

Add on to this that the World's End Tavern is in Epsilon, aka, Masked Fools gather in Epsilon due to its easy ways to obtain Elation. Even the concept of the Tavern itself is an easy joy card. Getting drunk and watching fights could be many people's cheap way to obtain Elation.

And Sampo doesn't like that.

He believes Elation should be obtained after hard work. Through endurance and hope, not by cheapishly making whatever and hoping that is your reason for happiness.

Having small pleasures isn't wrong, but pretending it's the key to happiness is. Because it's not true happiness. It's a temporary substitute.

Elation needs to have purpose.

This. Is mainly why he loves Belobog so much. They've persisted so long. 700 years of hoping for a better tomorrow. And when they do finally get it, it's the best payoff they could've gotten. A nice "happy ending" to this story full of tragedy.

Now. This is a strange thing. Because, despite being a (probably retired) Masked Fool, his ideas of Elation align quite a bit with that of the Mourning Actors.

I think Sampo sees value in both sides of the coin. But he doesn't completely agree with both of their views of Elation. His path of Elation is his alone, he walks it by himself. Actually, everyone sees Elation differently. This is just his way of expressing his own ideas.

I love Sampo Koski can we get more lore on him please